Require spellcraft points from characters with mastery of potions

[Junketeer]

How about we consider a different track.

I think that it would make more sense for "fake" potions to be about.  Bulls Strength that weakens you as poison instead, or lasts but a few rounds.  Fake brewers could sell some cheap ripoffs until they get caught and killed of course.  

Some drops are cheap or fake and only someone with Spellcraft points could tell if a potion is real or not.

[shrugs]  I have never been bothered too much by the potion thing, but then again, I am not one to know how or when to drink them.  But this would give some benefits of having a friend with Spellcraft points.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

How about we consider a different track.

I think that it would make more sense for "fake" potions to be about.  Bulls Strength that weakens you as poison instead, or lasts but a few rounds.  Fake brewers could sell some cheap ripoffs until they get caught and killed of course.  

Some drops are cheap or fake and only someone with Spellcraft points could tell if a potion is real or not.

[shrugs]  I have never been bothered too much by the potion thing, but then again, I am not one to know how or when to drink them.  But this would give some benefits of having a friend with Spellcraft points.

This.

[Drakill Tannan]

Indeed THAT. It is an awsome suggestion.

[TheMacPanther]

Do THAT.

[Relinquish]

Cool idea on paper, everyone will rage when they spend 1500 gold on potions that last 1 round or poison you.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Cool idea on paper, everyone will rage when they spend 1500 gold on potions that last 1 round or poison you.

Well, you technically can poison potions and drink and food.

[Howlando]

I agree complicated potions shouldn't be used perfectly by very low INT characters. However, there are actually very few low INT characters around - speaking as someone who actually knows what stats people have. 14 INT is more common than 10 int, and 10 int is a lot more common than 8 int.

I am not at all interested in encouraging players to take Spellcraft just to use potions correctly, there are already enough benefits to do so.

The thing is, most potions aren't very complex. But yes it is good when PCs who should struggle to know which ones to use actually do struggle, and also when PCs ask more knowledgeable characters about what to do and use...

[ExileStrife]

[Nightshadow]

Great... Now I don't feel unique with my 14 int fighter.

Ahem... But anyway, a better way to go about this is to have certain complex trinkets that have a mechanical requirement of a certain amount of lore, spellcraft, or int (preferably Lore, as that's what's used to identify items and how to use them), like those 'Curious Contraptions,' put a requirement of a 10 int, or 5 lore, or 5 spellcraft to use them. But requiring this to even be able to drink a potion seems silly. I think, however, that my suggestion of requiring it for certain other things might be a bit more realistic, balanced and interesting.

Oh, and that poison potion thing, awesome, yes please!

[Luke Danger]

Only problem I see with the poisoned potion/fake ones is that they may not stack with normal ones, and if they do, they might be de-poisoned/faked or make all of them poison/fake... a smart-eyed player may notice it

[Barehander]

On the original suggestion:

10 Int is average. That means it's probably the average of players on EFU:A, too. Most of us have no "skill points" in NWN mechanics, considering that basic proficiency requires no ranks whereas even one point represents out-of-the-ordinary skill.

So I think it's safe to assume that the normal people whose very life depends on the smart use of potions, daily, would know just as well as us normal people who just play a game every now and then. All the information we have about the effects of potions is just as readily available IC, I'm sure. And more importantly, we're playing an action game as much as we're telling stories, so you shouldn't pretend everything must be IC. It's just not what NWN is about.

Due to the stacking problem mentioned above, I guess the fake potion suggestion is somewhat limited in its usefulness. But then, there are a lot of apparently identical potions that don't stack, for some reason. It might work for the rare, higher-end potions.

[Dirtskunk]

I think the potion uses are pretty straightforward and don't think it's out of line most adventurers are well versed in them, save the more exotic ones, which are already more or less unknown. Naturally if a person wants to RP not knowing about potions it's on that person.

[Howlando]

I love how ES busted that graph out.

(We are -professionals-)

[DollarPhil]

I'm gonna hijack this thread now to ask for more graph options on EFUSS :D
Back on topic, one thing that did make one of my brewers a good amount of money was actually recommending potion combinations. "Ah sir, I see you want haste potions. Why not buy a couple of these handy displacements too, combined with haste they make you virtually untouchable". Also, when you're an adventurer who has Bull's Strength, Endurance and PFE cast on you every hour or less, some of the knowledge of what it does tends to rub off on you. Actually before my brewer retired, he planned to sell a gigantic consignment of  poisoned potions to a lot of PCs he didn't like as a sort of "farewell fuck you" :P.

Oh the subject of consumables in general though, I agree there are far too many "idiot weapons" about that anyone can use. Play an 8 int barb and you can still have offensive spell items you can use by the bucketload. Poisoned pots would be easy to implement in an interesting way like this, perhaps:

Potion of Power
The clear liquid is marked "Potion of Power".
Unique power single use

In the same chest you find these, there is a note with a scripted lore check (to break a cipher) saying "Okay Bob, sell these dumb pirates that contaminated booze as magical potions, and we'll get away while they are all busy throwing up". On the other hand, of course, genuine "potions of power" drop in other parts of the quest.

[Nihm]

Just making it so that complex potions are "Unidentified" should address this concern - this already is present in some cases, though not many.